Graham Rahal struggles at Sonoma, comes up short for IndyCar title

Graham Rahal, front, leading Charlie Kimball during the early stages of the Grand Prix of Sonoma, fought a troublesome racecar all day. (Eric Risberg, AP)

SONOMA, Calif. — Graham Rahal said he never had a chance to chase down Scott Dixon or Juan Pablo Montoya for the Verizon IndyCar Series championship.

Rahal, who came into the season finale at Sonoma Raceway just 34 points behind Montoya, finished 18th after a troublesome race that left him fourth in the final standings. Dixon, who was third in the standings entering the day, won the race and clinched his fourth IndyCar title in a tiebreaker over Montoya (Dixon had three wins; Montoya two).

“I knew I didn’t have any chance to win the championship,” Rahal told USA TODAY Sports after climbing out of the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Racing Honda. “I didn’t have enough. I knew my car wasn’t good enough. I was hanging on from the start.”

Even after Montoya and his Team Penske teammate Will Power collided on Lap 38 of the 85-lap GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma, Rahal knew he couldn’t make up enough ground.

“I was never very comfortable in the car, so I knew I didn’t have a chance to win the race unless everybody else took themselves out,” Rahal said. “What else can you say? Everybody that could hit us did hit us, and everything that could go wrong did. The car wasn’t very good today — it was the worst we’ve had all year — and unfortunately it just came at the wrong time.”

After the race, Rahal had a brief confrontation with Sebastien Bourdais, who struck the back of Rahal’s car and spun him out on Lap 76. The confrontation was captured on television; Bourdais appeared to be attempting to apologize, but Rahal pointed at Bourdis and told him, “You drove like (blank).”

Afterward, Rahal had more criticism for Bourdais.

“Bourdais unfortunately in recent times has made a lot of moves like that,” Rahal said. “I don’t know what kind of excuse he could possibly come up with for hitting me in the rear, but I hit the brakes at the 200 mark. It was going to be impossible for him to stop had he gone inside of me. Even if he had gone outside, he wasn’t going anywhere, yet he clearly just wasn’t even looking. He was obviously just focused right on my gearbox and not where we were on the circuit, and he just drilled me, and around I went.”

As the team, including co-owner David Letterman, swallowed its disappointment in the pits after the race, Rahal acknowledged that his two victories and fourth-place finish in the championship were a solid result and something to build on for 2016.

“All in all, it was a good year,” Rahal said. “You’re frustrated to go out this way, but these things happen. You just have to try hard to bounce back next year.”